West Manchester Police struggle to identify homicide victim

A man's bones were found in a wooded area in West Manchester Township in November

The man whose bones were found in West Manchester Township several months ago was intentionally killed, but police know little more because the man's identity remains unknown, Detective Sgt. Jeff Snell.

"It's very, very difficult ... before you can investigate a homicide, you have to know who your victim is," Snell said at a news conference Thursday, held at York County Coroner Pam Gay's office. "Somebody out there knows what happened."

Artist's rendering of homicide victim (Submitted)

A human skull was found Nov. 18 in a wooded area in the township. A team, which included forensic anthropologist Dennis Dirkmaat, a professor at Mercyhurst University in Erie, excavated the area.

Investigators went back to the site earlier this month to ensure that nothing had been missed previously.

It was Dirkmaat who examined the bones and discovered trauma on them, which led him, and investigators, to say the case is now a homicide, Snell said.

Police do know things about how the man was killed and what kind of injuries were found on his bones, but Snell said he wanted to keep those facts confidential.

Not disseminating the information will allow police to determine if someone they interview is telling the truth or not, he said.

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"I don't want it to be a situation where they heard it in the media," he said.

What police are saying is that the man was between 30-50 years old, between 5 feet 3 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall and not African American. He was either Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic or a combination of the three, West Manchester Township Detective Sean Conway said.

Snell said he and Conway are not sure if the man was killed at the area of Haviland and Loucks roads, or killed elsewhere and then his body was dumped there.

In addition, police also released an artist's composite sketch of what the victim may have looked like, based on his examination of the skull, Conway said.

The investigation, conducted by Snell and Conway, has focused on missing person reports east of the Mississippi River.

"We have potential matches from multiple states," that have not been confirmed or ruled out, Conway said.

But the detectives have not ruled out a local connection to the case.

"We have a transient population coming in from time to time," Snell said, with people attending events in York and the Fairgrounds. It's possible that the victim is connected with the area in that way, he said.

Conway said it will be about another month before he receives word from the University of North Texas on whether a DNA profile could be derived from the bones.

In addition, investigators were able to find a dental profile of the man, which included an upper dental plate with several missing teeth, the detectives said. The information has been entered into the National Crime Information Center database,

Once they get the DNA profile, it will be entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), Snell said.

With CODIS, even if the victim would have a brother or a father entered in the system, police would be able to figure out who he is, Snell said.

The case's biggest break also remains the most elusive — that someone will come forward to say they knew the victim, Snell said.

"That's the problem with this case — if the victim wasn't reported missing, we might not know who he is," Snell said. "Once that (identification) happens, this investigation can really get launched at that point."